Microsoft, Facebook might build genius AI that’s 10x faster than rivals – and it could work on ANY device

GENIUS artificial intelligence systems that will be “10 times faster” than anything else available today are being developed.
Better still, the so-called “distributed intelligence” technology is being built to work on any device – including smartphones, tablets and computers.
Alamy The future of artificial intelligence could be seriously clever
Silicon Valley giants are desperately battling for AI dominance, and a clever new system may help Microsoft, Facebook and others make their tech even smarter.
California’s Qualcomm – which supplies technologies to the likes of Apple, Samsung and Microsoft – has revealed a brand new AI technology.
It’s called the Cloud AI 100, and is designed to improve the processing and efficiency of AI systems.
As the name suggests, it works in the cloud – a key technology for AI.
Qualcomm’s new AI system is around 17 times faster than the company’s most powerful mobile chip, the Snapdragon 855 – which featured in the Samsung Galaxy S10 smartphone
For instance, when you ask your Amazon Echo a question, it will send your query up to the cloud.
Then, powerful computers will work out what you’re asking, try to find a solution, and beam it back down to your Echo.
At that point, Alexa will read out the correct answer – with very minimal computing actually happening on the device itself.
Qualcomm’s Cloud AI 100 is designed to speed up AI systems that work in the cloud.
According to Qualcomm, its new AI system can provide more than 10x the performance per watt of power that “the industry’s most advanced AI” systems available today.
This will help “enhance a myriad of potential experiences” for everyday Brits, according to Qualcomm.
For instance, we can expect personal assistants – like Microsoft’s Cortana – to offer better language processing, which will help her understand you better, and give more conversational replies.
It will also improve the speed at which AI can translate language, advanced image searching, and more personalised content and recommendations on your gadgets.
Microsoft revealed its support for this new Cloud AI 100 tech, which may one day feature in its own “distributed intelligence” systems.
“Microsoft’s vision of cloud-to-edge AI emphasises the benefits of distributed intelligence,” said Microsoft’s Venky Veeraraghavan.
“Collaboration continues between Qualcomm Technologies and Microsoft in many areas.”
Qualcomm’s Keith Kressin declined to tell The Sun who would be on board with the new tech.
But both Microsoft and Facebook spoke about their ongoing partnerships with Qualcomm at the launch event today.
Sadly neither firm explicitly said they would be using the new technology.
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What is artificial intelligence?Here’s what you need to know…

Artificial intelligence, also known as AI, is a type of computer software
Typically, a computer will do what you tell it to do
But artificial intelligence simulates the human mind, and can make its own deductions, inferences or decisions
A simple computer might let you set an alarm to wake you up
But an AI system might scan your emails, work out that you’ve got a meeting tomorrow, and then set an alarm and plan a journey for you
AI tech is often “trained” – which means it observes something (potentially even a human) then learns about a task over time
For instance, an AI system can be fed thousands of photos of human faces, then generate photos of human faces all on its own
Some experts have raised concerns that humans will eventually lose control of super-intelligent AI
But the tech world is still divided over whether or not AI tech will eventually kill us all in a Terminator-style apocalypse

To boost AI performance, Qualcomm created a chip built on a 7nm manufacturing process.
That’s a technical term that describes how close the transistors – tiny electronic switches that make computing happen – are to each other.
The closer the transistors, the more that can be squeezed onto a circuit board, making for more computing power overall.
A 7nm process is the same ultra-efficient design used to create the ludicrously fast Apple A12 chip inside the new iPhone XS.
Qualcomm’s new AI systems will be available to tech giants starting in the second half of this year.
And it means our digital assistants might not get our queries wrong as often, speed up their replies, and make them far smarter – which may be a good or bad thing, depending on whether or not you think robots will eventually destroy the human race.
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Are you excited or worried about the rise of artificial intelligence? Let us know in the comments!

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